ABSTRACT
Rising poverty has its deepest roots in the economic stagnation that began sometime in the early 1970s as US companies faced greater international competition and their profits leveled off. Thirty-six million people—one in seven US residents—live below the official poverty line. Poverty has been rising in the United States for two decades, as impoverishing forces in the economy and inadequate, and sometimes harmful, public policy responses have combined to place an ever greater share of the US population at economic risk. Combatting this rising poverty will require a reversal of public policy, a willingness to challenge the constraints of the global economy, and the political leadership to unify the country in the service of its most marginalized and disenfranchised sons and daughters. Government benefits from the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program have dropped consistently since 1970. Stagnant wages, changing family forms, and government abdication of anti-poverty policy all contributed to swelling the ranks of the poor.
